Just a day before reporting second quarter earnings, Barnes & Noble’s Nook has finally launched their long-promised international sales rollout — which works through Windows 8.1 devices. The new app and expanded storefront is said to be available in 32 countries in all, primarily across Europe (but also Australia and Canada), and 21 languages. The focus, offering “customized local market Nook storefronts with robust local content offerings,” is on these 9 countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland. Barnes & Noble executive Jim Hilt says in the release, “Nook is one of the leading digital reading platforms […]
eNews
Briefs: New Divisions for Macmillan Children’s UK; Charlotte Zolotow Dies; and More
Macmillan Children’s UK announced the creation of two audience-focused publishing divisions, Macmillan Under 6s, to be overseen by publisher Stephanie Barton, and Macmillan Over 6s, led by Venetia Gosling. Both Barton and Gosling will report to Belinda Rasmussen, with Gosling also working with Pan Macmillan publisher Jeremy Trevethan on crossover projects. Each new division also announced additional promotions: At Under 6s, Suzanne Carnell becomes publishing director, Picture Books & Pre-School, and Jackie McCann moves up to editorial director, Campbell and nursery. At Over 6s, Gaby Morgan has been promoted to editorial director, adding backlist strategy to her existing remit of […]
People, Etc.
Simon & Schuster has reorganized its manufacturing and production department in a bid to “further integrate the design and creation of ebooks into the earliest stages of our overall production process, as well as forge closer ties between our Adult publishing groups and the design, copyediting and production teams that create our books.” Irene Kheradi has been promoted to vp, executive managing editor of production and copy editing. Samantha Cohen moves up to vp, design and digital content development. Angela Hsiao has been named vp, demand planning and reprints. And Joe Bulger moves up to vp, client management and business development. […]
Judge Chin Finds Google’s Book Scanning Is Fair Use, First Ruling In Eight-Year Case
After 8 years of litigation over Google’s broad-scale scanning and indexing of more than 20 million books in libraries, Judge Denny Chin has granted summary judgment in favor of Google, ruling that their work qualifies as fair use. The revised case brought by the Authors Guild and individual authors has been dismissed. Judge Chin’s ruling is sweepingly in Google’s favor, praising the service the company has provided and offering no shades of grey or nuance of interpretation in weighing whether it qualifies as fair use. Judge Chin’s examination of all four factors to evaluate fair use is unequivocable, beginning with the […]
Houghton Pops, Chegg Drops
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt‘s IPO had a modest start on Tuesday night, when the company priced their stock at $12 a share — below the planned target range of $14 to $16 a share, reflecting a softer reception from investors. But those shares popped when trading began at roughly 10:50 Wednesday morning on the NASDAQ, rising 30 percent or more before settling back to roughly $15 a share when we were finalizing the morning’s mail. The reduction in proceeds from the initial sale has no impact on the company, since all the money raised goes to the existing shareholders, who were selling […]
Chegg’s Hot/Cold IPO
Chegg.com’s initial public offering of stock came to market with stronger than expected demand, pricing 15 million shares at $12.50 a share — above the expected offering range of $9.50 to $11.50 a share. But that initial demand looks to have been driven by speculators hoping for a quick flip on the first dotcom offering to follow Twitter’s big IPO from November 7 rather than investors eager for a piece of the textbook rental business. Chegg’s shares have declined since opening earlier this morning, currently down over 15 percent at 11:00 and trading back at the middle of the expected […]